By night Sonic Unleashed is a 3D brawler

Sonic isn’t a werewolf, he’s werehog. At night Sonic turns feral with stretchable arms used to grab ledges and punch the daylights out of enemies. Sonic has an upwards repeating punch attack for pseudo-air juggling and some basic claw slashes. A combo meter tells you if you're kicking ass or not. However, Sonic doesn’t “run” at night. The after dark areas are just for fighting and some platform jumping. I’m not convinced making levels designed for roughhousing is necessary, but then again Shadow: The Hedgehog was further left field than Sonic: The Werehog.

By day Sonic Unleashed replicates the feeling of speed found in the Genesis games. The camera automatically fixes in place to make the areas appear to be 2D. Other times the camera locks behind Sonic, which makes these parts of Sonic Unleashed feel like the bonus stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

The stages in Sonic Unleashed are based on real locations like Africa, the European Union, and China where Sonic runs on the Great Wall.